Australian Social Media Statistics – A business perspective

Australian Social Media Statistics

Social media is an excellent channel to use for marketing, to engage with prospective and existing customers, impart key messaging, and utilise as a source of information for strategising. However, Australian’s use of social media is slightly different to the rest of the world, as I will illustrate in this blog. Therefore, it’s important to understand the nuances of the Australian social media user and how they differ to social media users around the world when utilising social media as an Australian business tool. This information can assist us to plan our social media and marketing strategy. This is the purpose of this blog.

Australian Social Media Statistics

Social media is an excellent channel to use for marketing, to engage with prospective and existing customers, impart key messaging, and utilise as a source of information for strategising. However, Australian’s use of social media is slightly different to the rest of the world, as I will illustrate in this blog. Therefore, it’s important to understand the nuances of the Australian social media user and how they differ to social media users around the world when utilising social media as an Australian business tool. This information can assist us to plan our social media and marketing strategy. This is the purpose of this blog.

Australian Social Media Statistics

Let’s start by reviewing general Australian social media trends and then we can move on to social media for the Australian business and then how social media impacts purchasing decisions.

Australian Social Media Statistics

Australian Social Media Statistics

Firstly let’s review Australian’s use of social media.

According to Wikipedia Australia ranks 31st in the world based on internet penetration

The May Sensis survey indicates that 49% of Australian social media users access social media sites every day, which is an increase from 46% in 2014 and 24% check social media more than five times a day (which is up from 19% last year). This suggests the intensity of social networking usage has gradually increased since 2011 but overall use might have plateaued.

This suggests the intensity of Australian social networking usage has gradually increased since 2011 but overall use might have plateaued.

The table below shows how this changes by age group (Australian figures).

Females and younger Australians (below 40) remain the most prolific social networking users with much greater proportions in these segments using social media per se and more frequently than others.

Facebook usage still dominates Australian social media usage, however, it has decreased slightly from 95% in 2014 to 93% in 2015 whilst LinkedIn usage has increased by 4% to 28% in the last year.

Australian Facebook usage is considerably greater than that of the US and worldwide. However, other social media site usages are similar.

Pew Research indicates that 71% of U.S. online users use Facebook, 27% use LinkedIn and Pinterest, 26% use Instagram and 23% use Twitter.

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Below are the top social media sites on a worldwide basis according to Statistica

According to GWI the worldwide figures for social platform usage is similar to the trend we see in Australia. However, Facebook usage is 82%, which is less than Australia and has also seen a drop in active usage during the last year (-9%).

Australian Social Media Statistics

In addition, over 50% of Facebook’s worldwide active users are engaging with the site more than once a day – far higher than the equivalent figure on any other network

The table below indicates Australian usage by gender and age:

LinkedIn usage remains higher among males, those working full-time and higher income earners. Visual platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr continue to appeal more to the younger age demographics; usage is much lower in over 30s. Males use Twitter more than females while Pinterest is far more appealing to the latter.

Facebook is clearly the dominant social platform around the world. However, now lets review frequency of use, starting with Australia

Let’s now review how this compare to the U.S.:

Let’s now look at social media business use in Australia and how that compares to the rest of the world.

Australia business use of social media

According to CMO 54% of North American B2B marketers said they have generated leads from social media.

In Australia the percentage of businesses with a social media presence is greatly different:

which is significantly different to the North American LinkedIn study that showed 81% of North American SMBs are using social media, and of those that use social, 94% do so for marketing purposes.

Now let’s see if Australian businesses are paying to use social media:

which is an increase from last year’s Australian figures:

However, salesforce.com 2015 State of Marketing reports that Australian businesses find social media an important part of their operations:

55% of Australian marketers believe social media marketing is core to their business

57% of respondents from Australia: cite social as a critical enabler of products and services

On a worldwide basis, DashBurst report that 80% of brands advertised on social media sites in 2014. Which is far greater than the Australian figures

Australian Social Media Statistics

However, we can see that in Australia, advertising investment in social media is increasing, this may be due to the understanding that social media influences buying decisions. Lets now review the impact that social media has on Australian buying decisions.

Australian Social Media Statistics

Does Social Media influence buying decisions?

Let’s begin by reviewing social media brand followers.

The Sensis survey found a third of Australian social media users follow businesses or brands (32%). This has remained reasonably constant over the last three years. The types of Australian businesses followed are illustrated below:

In addition, 19% of Australian social media conduct research into products and services. Of those that conduct research, half go on to make a purchase (49%) and two thirds (63%) make that purchase online.

The type of products and services researched on Australian social media is illustrated below.

The most significant year on year increase has been Furniture and Things for the Home, which increased from 29% in 2014 to 40% in 2015

Cosmetics, beauty and fragrances also demonstrated an increase from 12% in 2014 to 23% this year, which is close to the position in 2012.

Let’s review the importance of blog, reviews and ratings in Australia:

Blogs and reviews continue to influence buying decisions, with over half of social media users (55%) reading reviews before making a purchase, which is less prevalent than the past few years.

Ratings and reviews should be a major focus for businesses online.

62% of people open to changing their opinion of a business if it responds to negative feedback on social media.

The majority of Australian internet users (55%) read online reviews or blogs

Young people aged below 30 and those in the ACT or SA are more avid readers of such reviews.

Most readers look at up to 5 reviews before making a decision.

Let’s see if Australian businesses believe that social media has in impact on sales:

Now, let’s see how that differs to North American consumers:

74% of U.S. consumers rely on social media to making a buying decision. (Social Media Today)

According to Investp U.S. social commerce sales are forecasted to represent 5% of online retail revenue in this year. (Investp)

33% of U.S. consumers have acted on a promotion on a brand’s social media page (Investp)

Deloitte conducted a U.S. study to understand the impact of social media on the buying cycle:

The U.S. Deloitte report goes on to say the influence of social media during the shopping journey is related to the age of the shopper:

47% of Millennial consumers use social media during their shopping journey, compared to 19% of nonMillennials

34% of U.S. Eccolo Media survey respondents consumed social content in order to evaluate a technology purchase. However, when asked to rank the top 5 assests they found most influential social media only received 14% of the response

SUMMARY

Australian social media usage intensity gradually increased since 2011 but overall use might have plateaued. Facebook is still the dominant Australian social media platform at 93% usage, with other platforms increasing in use.

From a business perspective, less Australian businesses use social media than businesses in North America. However, the majority of Australian businesses do see social media as an important part of their operations. We have seen that social media does have an impact on purchasing decisions, more greatly in some markets than others.

We hope you enjoyed these Australian facts and statistics.

Just a little about us, Results 2Day is a digital marketing and social media enterprise listening company. We believe that, if used correctly, enterprise listening insights can transform a business’ go-to-market strategy and provide invaluable on-going feedback to tactics and direction. We were keen to share with you some statistics that demonstrate the increasing importance of social media.

Australian Social Media Statistics

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